A Tragedy in Paris.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 242, 18 February 1888, Page 8 (Supplement)

A Tragedy in Paris.

A fearful tragedy — the hero of which was Theodore Popel, a young Russian officer, the heroine one Jeanne Perron, KJigurantt at the theatre of the Chateau d'Eau, barely out of her teens — has been enacted in Paris. According to the "Daily Telegraph's" correspondent, the Muscovite, who was the son of a prelate of the Church, and was in Paris on regular leave, made the acquaintance of his fair flame at one of the caf^s kept open in the small hours of the night for the accommodation o\ those who are addicted to "going^ the pace." He courted her from the very hrst for what the French call "lo bon motif" — that is to say, he wanted her to marry him ; but the young woman had very different ideas of life, and treated all his proposals to become Aldme. Popel and to accompany him to Russia with ridicule. At an early hour on Saturday morning the couple, with a dressmaker who was an intimate friend of Jeanne Perron, betook themselves to a fashionable restaurant, where they supped. Popel, who hae been drinking freely, returned repeatedly to the charge, and besought fixajigurante to marry him. At six o'clock the party, after providing themselves with a bottlo of brandy for refreshment on the read, took a cab and drove to a email hotel, where a room was engaged, to which they all repaired ; Jeanne Perron fearing to be left alone with the Russian, who was in a terrible state of excitement. There, after emptying half the brandy-bottle, Popel took two rings from his pocket, and, presenting one to Jeanne, declared solemnly that he had married her, and called on her friend to witness the fact. He then said that he wished to be left alone with his wife, and, as the dressmaker hesitated, he kicked her out of the room. Popel adjured the woman to accompany him to Russia, and, finding that she persisted in her refusal, he took a revolver from his pocket, and, after firing three shots at her, turned the weapon to his own temple and fell down dead. Two of Jeanne's teeth have been broken, and one of the bullets is lodged in her palate, while another has piercea her breast.